Harnessing the Power of Talent and Technology to Aid in the Refugee Crisis

In the social good sector, nonprofits are striving day after day to create the most impact, to make a difference in the world. We are no strangers to the refugee crisis; you see and hear it in the headlines everyday. In fact, according to the report from the United Human Rights Council, “Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2017,” the number of forcibly displaced people has grown to 68.5 million (16.2 million of whom were displaced in 2017). What’s even more alarming is that 44,400 of people are displaced every day, so humanitarian nonprofits are fighting even harder to help these people.

Earlier this year, the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a nonprofit founded by Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya, announced a partnership with Toptal, a company dedicated to connecting the world’s leading organizations with top talent, to provide support for the global refugee crisis.

The partnership is part of TopVolunteer, a program where Toptal partners with leading organizations in need of high-skilled talent for their volunteer initiatives. “We’re very passionate about the refugee crisis. It truly is one of the largest issues of our time; it's one of the defining challenges of our time. By joining Tent, we're getting the ability to learn from other companies within the Tent partnership scope. All of them are making incredible efforts in this space, and we really want to learn how to navigate this space and make the most impact over time,” Eryn Peters, director of operations at Toptal, said in an interview with NonProfit PRO.

With the growing need for support in the refugee crisis, it’s vital for nonprofits that have missions focused in this realm to focus their efforts toward technology and talent in order to help them make the most impact in these people’s lives. According to Peters, technology is vital to disseminating information for migrants. What’s even more important is developing new tools and software to solve their problems. In terms of talent, a lot of nonprofits struggle with finding skilled labor in both technology and business, and that’s where Toptal can lend a hand.

“If we look at any organization, nonprofit or otherwise, there's a global talent shortage. An overwhelming amount of organizations are so reliant on technology in some way, shape or form. And it requires a lot of skill knowledge to navigate. In general, I think that the skill shortage is going to continue to increase, so trying to focus on facilitating those interactions would be so important,” Peters said.

To learn more about Tent, click here.